I will never catch up...

Nothing like the power of positive thinking, right???

I haven't blogged for three weeks.

I'm still in the process of switching the girls' sizes and seasons of clothing (the bins have been out for a couple of weeks!).

I made what seemed like a very reasonable to-do list this morning, and only made it through two-thirds of the jobs.

I hung a load of clothes on the line on this warm and sunny afternoon, only for it to start raining just when the laundry was almost dry.

Speaking of laundry, Mr. B seems to wear clothes faster than I can keep them ironed for him.

Our "vegetable garden" is not sporting any vegetable plants as of yet.

No, I will never catch up! But I'm okay with that...I'll just keep plugging along, loving on my babies that are not going to be babies forever!

In fact, Audrey turned 9 months old on Sunday! She amazes us daily at what a good baby she really is: she eats well (rice, oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peas, pears, bananas, applesauce, and just recently: Cheerios!), sleeps well (somewhere between 10 and 12 hours each night, with two good naps during the day), and is generally happy all the time. She doesn't crawl yet, but she gets around, primarily by rolling and "scootching."

Miss Eloise is a character. Perhaps you remember Joanie? She's still around. We buckle her into the van, help her out of the van, hold her hand in parking lots...she's a wonderful comrade (and cohort in crime) for Eloise. Last week our newly-three-and-a-half-year-old surprised us by climbing up on Evie's tricycle (a feat in and of itself for the little peanut), s-t-r-e-t-c-h-ing to reach the pedals, and proceeding to pedal the trike around the block by means of a cute little hip-shifting maneuver she somehow managed.

Evie seems to become more precocious by the minute. I've noticed her saying, "I have no clue," about different things. I've been trying to figure out where she got that, but I have no clue I'm not really sure...Anyway, the other day she and Eloise had been swimming in the neighbor's pool, and when we got home, they both went upstairs to change out of their wet swimsuits. Evie came into my bedroom and announced, "I know this is not appropriate, but I'm going to wear it for now because we're not really going anywhere." I quickly spun around to see what "inappropriate" clothing item(s) she had found (you know, in the bins of clothes that were still lying around, waiting for me to finish loading and unloading???). The inappropriate outfit: a skirted leotard, tucked into her silky pajama pants, and a velour hoodie (because sometimes you're chilly after swimming, even when it's 85 degrees outside!).

Eloise took off her swimsuit, put on her Elmo panties, discovered Evie was wearing the only clean skirted leotard and she really, really wanted to wear a leotard, too. What's a girl to do? Why, put the wet swimsuit back on, over the Elmo panties, of course. Oh, and add a nice warm cardigan, just in case the wet swimsuit makes you cold.

This is the pose she struck when I asked her to put her hands on her hips (so I could be sure to see the Elmo underpants). I guess we need to work on body part identification...

And yes, those are some of the infamous clothes bins in each of those pictures. And other stuff all over the place. I will never catch up, remember? And it's okay, remember???

Excuse This House

Some houses try to hide the fact

That children shelter there;

Ours boasts of it quite openly,

The signs are everywhere.

For smears are on the windows,

Little smudges on the doors;

I should apologize, I guess

For toys strewn on the floor.

But I sat down with the children

And we played and laughed and read,

And if the doorbell doesn't shine,

Their eyes will shine instead.

For when I have to choose between

The one job or the other,

Though I need to cook and clean,

First I'll be a

Mother.

--Unknown